What should you ask a client before a shoot?

The type of shoot, the date and the duration, the exact address, who will be present, how many retouched photographs are expected, the delivery formats, and the intended use. The use decides the resolution and the rights, so it decides the price.

Why ask what the photographs are for?

Because it decides the fee and the contract. Pictures for an Instagram account, for an online shop and for an outdoor campaign do not carry the same licence or the same term. Asking after delivery means renegotiating a job already done.

Photography: the date, the place and the end use settled before the shoot

Type of shoot, date and duration, exact address, deliverables, usage rights: the answers that decide the fee, asked first.

Create my studio for free See the questions

A photograph for a website and the same photograph for a billboard are not taken the same way: not the framing, not the resolution, not the rights. The end use is the one thing nobody thinks to mention, and it arrives after delivery as a re-crop everyone assumes is free. Alongside it sit the date, the duration, the exact address and who will be there.

This is a suggestion, not a standard. We do not do your job: this list is a starting point, to be added to, cut down and rephrased to suit the way you work.

The questions

15 questions. A shoot, an event, a portrait. Five minutes of brief.

The shoot

What it is, and when.

What kind of shoot?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- Wedding
- Portrait / headshots
- Business photography
- Product photography
- Property
- Event
- Sport
Date and start time
Date · Required
The time matters as much as the day: late afternoon light is not midday light. If nothing is fixed, put an approximate date and say so in the comments.
How long for?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- 1 hour
- 2 hours
- Half a day
- A full day
- Two days or more
Where is it?
Short text · Required
A town is enough at this stage, the exact address can come later.
Indoors or outdoors?
Single choice · Optional
The answers offered:
- Outdoors
- Indoors
- Both
- I do not know yet
How many people are being photographed?
Number · Optional
Leave it empty if there is nobody in the pictures.

What you will get

The deliverables, and what you will be allowed to do with them.

What you are expecting
Multiple choice · Required
Tick everything you need.
The answers offered:
- An online gallery
- Edited high-resolution photos
- Vertical crops for social media
- Prints
- A printed album
How many edited photos would you like?
Number · Optional
An estimate is fine. Editing is the longest part of the job, so it is what moves the quote most.
What will the photos be used for?
Dropdown · Required
This changes the price more than anything else: family use and a billboard campaign are not the same job.
The answers offered:
- Personal or family use
- Social media
- A website
- Advertising or billboards
- Press
- Resale

The mood

The most useful part of all: show me what you like.

The mood you are after
Long text · Optional
Photos you like
File · Optional
Images found anywhere, even on your phone. Three examples beat a paragraph.
Constraints I should know about
Multiple choice · Optional
Anything that might need preparing or permission.
The answers offered:
- Private venue, permission needed
- Difficult access or stairs with no lift
- Young children
- Animals
- People who would rather not be photographed
- A fixed time slot

And finally

Your deadline, and anything that did not fit the questions above.

When do you need it?
Dropdown · Required
The answers offered:
- As soon as possible
- Within 2 weeks
- Within a month
- No particular deadline
Anything you would like to add?
Long text · Optional
A constraint, a question, a detail I ought to bear in mind.
Any other files to attach
File · Optional
On top of what is asked for above: screenshots, sketches, documents. HEIC from an iPhone is fine.

The colours to offer

A client who writes “blue” and a studio who reads “blue” are not talking about the same colour. A list of shades settles it straight away.

Black
White
Off-white
Sand beige
Sage green
Terracotta
Slate grey
Sepia

How it works

1
You pick your trade
When you sign up, and the questions on this page are already in your account. You cut them down, add to them and rephrase them: nothing is fixed.
2
You send one link
Your client answers from their phone, when they can, and uploads their files. They install nothing, create no account and choose no password.
3
What follows stays in one place
The conversation, the chasing, the later rounds of questions, the deposit and the balance, and the delivery of the files, which can open on its own once the payment settles.

What it costs

Free up to five orders a month, with no card and no time limit. Past that a paid plan takes over, and nothing about the way you work changes.

See the plans

Frequently asked questions

What should you ask a client before a shoot?: The type of shoot, the date and the duration, the exact address, who will be present, how many retouched photographs are expected, the delivery formats, and the intended use. The use decides the resolution and the rights, so it decides the price.
Why ask what the photographs are for?: Because it decides the fee and the contract. Pictures for an Instagram account, for an online shop and for an outdoor campaign do not carry the same licence or the same term. Asking after delivery means renegotiating a job already done.

Think something is wrong?

A question that is missing, one that means nothing in your trade, a word that is not the right one: write to us and we will fix it.

Write to us at [email protected]

These questions are already waiting for you

Create your studio, pick your trade, and this brief is there. You send one link, your client answers once, and you follow what happens next in the same place.

Create my studio for free Read the blog